Nail varnishes and care products for the nails are often applied by brushes that are made by stapling a tuft of bristles to the end of a stem.
Such brushes are generally satisfactory for substances of substantially liquid consistency.
However, for more viscous substances, conventional brushes may not yield good results. For example, the bristles may form stripes on the surface of the substance that remain after the substance has dried.
French patent 1 409 201 discloses an applicator having a handle that is curved and made of an elastically-deformable material so as to enable the user to exert light pressure on the sides of the handle so as to narrow or widen the opening of the bundle of bristles in order to adapt it to the width of the nail being treated. That applicator presents the above-mentioned drawback.
Nail varnish applicators that do not have bristles also have been proposed.
European patent application EP 0 916 282 A1 discloses an applicator comprising an applicator element that presents a curved shape. The applicator may be housed in a receptacle provided with a wiper member that is constituted, at least in part, by an elastically-deformable porous material. The presence of the wiper member may make it difficult for the user to control the quantity of composition taken by the applicator.
French patent 2 836 029 describes devices for producing a “French Manicure” effect that involves depositing a white composition at the end of varnished nails in order to imitate the whites of the nails.
French patent 1 174 544 discloses an applicator comprising a stem that is provided at one end with a plane blade having a distal edge that is rectilinear. When not in use, the stem is inserted in a narrow-necked receptacle.
International Publication WO 2006/068857 discloses a device for applying makeup to the nails. The device may include a plurality of differing-sized protrusions that are interconnected via a central hub.